Mid-Week Miscellany
The pace of life has shifted into Holiday Fast Forward. We’re already coming up on the last crazy night of Hanukkah; tonight we light candle #8 and once they’re done I can start scraping the dripped wax off the menorah and my mantle. The world seems to have swung into full-on Christmas Manic mode. The malls are packed, the traffic on my drive home from work is miserable, and everyone in LA seems to be giving free rein to their Inner Scrooge. Still, there are many things to enjoy this time of year.
Unless you have a pear orchard outside your back door, I can’t imagine that you could find sweeter, juicier pears than these. We splurge on a box or two of these every season, and enjoy immensely. Usually when you get them, they’ll still need to ripen a bit; set one or two out on the counter for a couple of days and keep the rest in the fridge. When the top of the pear near the stem starts to feel soft, they’re ready to eat. Have a napkin handy! (They’ll keep for several days at least in the fridge pre-ripening, suggest you only ripen as many at once as will be eaten.) They make a great gift, too.
Remember when this color first was introduced, how goth and transgressive it seemed? (Well, maybe that was just me.) Now it’s a classic that looks great even on short nails, and is a sophisticated accent for holiday party ensembles. Yes, Chanel polishes are a small fortune compared to other brands, but I’ve been so impressed with how well they go on and and how long they last. If you’re going to wear a dark color, the last thing you want is chipping, and I’ve worn this one for a week at a time with nary a nick, even while traveling.
Holiday Lights
Some of our neighbors here put up some very festive decorations, but a favorite family tradition this time of year is taking a boat ride through the canals of Naples…Naples in Long Beach, that is. We pile everyone into MIL’s neighbor’s Duffy Boat, with some drinks and snacks, and plenty of blankets, and cruise around the canals to see the lighting displays, many of which are professionally done. Watch out for the gondoliers!
What are you enjoying about the holiday season so far this year?
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The canal trip sounds lovely – and I remember your neighbours Christmas decorations from last year!
Lovely menorah. I’m loving the snow , it’s a novelty for us at this time of year
I love to give Harry and David fruit and also Cushman’s honey bells!
I see the malls and streets packed but the difference this year is many more shopping bags; people seem to be spending.
A seasonal joy happened yesterday, my annual holiday biscotti baking,
I’m so in need of new decorations and getting round to it.
Deffo vamp the only way to go!! xx
Well, by the end of this week (I hope!) when my septic system is working again, I will be appreciating the holiday-and-all-year-round goodness that is sewage disposal. I’m also appreciating the entrepeneurial delivery business on our wee island which has arranged to pick up Christmas trees in town and deliver one to my doorstep on Friday — after that, I’ll be prettying the place up and waiting for my little Nola to show up and admire. Popped into a few stores on the weekend and not loving the crowds so will be trying to find joys of the non-commercial variety — the lights are a great start!
entrepreneurial, sorry, but you knew that! Proof-read, Mater, proof-read!
I had the annual Nog N Nosh in the school library for our staff…it was well attended and they look forward to this every year…it means baking and planning ahead. I love doing it.
My home baking is well underway, I have ordered my free range turkey and am doing some shopping…
Your boat ride sounds like fun and the effort that people go to when illuminating their homes should be enjoyed…I’ll bet there was a lot of oohing and aahing aboard on your cruise.
I am loving the socialising and parties but loathing the crowds at the shoppes! My family are not giving gifts this year- the relief is instense. I love those pears, aren’t they beautifully packaged? Vamp is the best.
I have ordered Harry and David for some gifts in the past. I never thought of ordering for myself. What a wonderful WW self-gift. Thanks for suggesting it.
I too enjoy Vamp. Also a big fan of all the lights. There is a wonderful area in Redondo Beach where all the residents go over-the-top in terms of decorations. Each year we go for a drive through with some cocoa.
Happy Hanukkah!
xo
Can’t beat Harry & David’s pears. My brother always sends us a box of H&D for Christmas, bless him. All the other items are good, but I’m always hoping for more pears…
Yes, those Comice pears are exquisite! A true treat!
Oh such a great list! I agree with LBR re: the pears, what a fantastic WW-friendly gift to myself! Always excited when a vendor sends them to our office at the holidays.
I live in a very… hippie community and the lights are fantastic because they are so haphazard, all sorts of colors. My daughter really does feel as though she lives in a winter wonderland when walking down the path of homes to our front door. 🙂
We’ve been baking and singing carols and just having a grand time enjoying the small things (like the candles in the windows lights I love so much!). We’re going caroling at a retired sisters (as in, religious sisters) community soon and helping to hang the greens at church next weekend. And hopefully hunting down some new stockings to hang.
Odd fact about me that your post reminded me of….I actually own a menorah! It’s a godinger one I found in a thrift store and bought because it was so beautiful and I thought “Someday that will make a nice gift for a Jewish friend.” My husband agreed so it’s in our box of gifts we keep for things like that.
Happy Hanukkah!
Ugh, I’ve been so sick that we haven’t lit the menorah once. Will HAVE to drag it out tonight for a short service! Thanks for the reminder.
I love Harry and David pears and have been known to order them for myself :-).
That’s a beautiful Menorah.
In a few days we’re off to Christmas Markets on the Danube, from Nuremberg to Vienna, with an extra 4-day extension in Vienna. Back the 26th. So we’re bagging Christmas! But the kids are coming over the 27th to celebrate. I can’t wait to be cold, see snow, and experience Christmas in Vienna.
For the people we gift to who don’t live out of town, we make gift baskets. I buy baskets at Michael’s, fill them with coffee beans from the Coffee Roaster in Sherman Oaks, California, homemade biscotti and granola and finish with a pile of those delicious Cutie tangerines. Happy Hanukkah.
I love the nail color and I agree with your opinion about Chanel polish. After all, it’s just another accessory!
I have done no preparations for the coming Christmas. I deliberately avoid all big stores. We lead a very simple life, where food and gifts play a minor role. I am not waiting for the pre Christmas, nor the after Christmas sales. Sales is definitely a time, which keeps me away from stores and shops. Sorry for being a downer!
Oh, I did not know you are Jewish? Happy belated chanuka then! I have had enough of the donuts for a while.. 🙂
I was so excited for Vamp way back when, but when I painted my nails, they looked too “girl gang member” for me. Alas, I’m too darn Scandia/waspy too pull it off.
Joyeuse Hanoucca!
This seems to be the most common transliteration in French, though there are several others.
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanoucca
It is not a major holiday in France; several Jewish friends have told me they never celebrated it, or perhaps ate latkes or soufganiot, selon les origines, played with the dreidel/sevivon top etc. but little more.
Perhaps because modern France is so secular that some of my most memorable “Christmas” celebrations were spent with ostensibly Jewish or Muslim friends.
I do have Jewish friends in Paris who are observant, and they are a half Moroccan, half Polish-Canadian family, so they combine Sephardic and Askenazi customs … and foods (yum)! It is easy to find good quality kosher wines in Paris, if you happen to be visiting an observant friend.
Susan, I’ve never been to Vienna, and I have friends there; moreover one of my closest friends in Paris is the son of Viennese refugees from Nazism to Brazil… (yep, another dictatorship a generation later!) A long story. I have several books on Vienna and am thinking of doing an intensive German course there, though my friends in Germany might find the accent odd. No odder than friends in Paris find the Québecois accent, even in its most “educated” forms.
I love pears.